Thursday before last we saw traffic chaos in many parts of Finland never before witnessed in this country.
I was taking Mika out that evening. As I drove out of the front gate, I realised something was horribly wrong as it became virtually impossible to steer the car. I drove at just a few kilometres per hour, managed to reach the destination to drop off Mika, and drove back equally cautiously. On return I told Annikki about my experience, as she had in passing, earlier in the day, mentioned some accidents in Helsinki. She then told me about the chaos that had taken place in south Finland, 600 km south of Oulu.
The weather had been quite fine and warm and then it had begun to snow. It was a very light powdery type of snow. With the sunshine being quite strong, the top layer of ice on the roads melted and froze again to resemble an ice-field. The powdery snow on top of it acted like chalk on a carrom board. Road conditions deteriorated so quickly that before drivers realised it there was no way to control trucks and cars as they slithered everywhere involved in pile ups on the highways. Three people died and dozens were injured in a series of pile-ups. Eight people with serious injuries were taken to hospital in Helsinki, a further five to Hyvinkää, and some to Porvoo. Dozens more were treated for minor injuries at local health centres.
In the space of just 10 minutes, at around 8 a.m. during the morning rush-hour, four main arteries into the Finnish capital were blocked by wrecked vehicles, as fine, powdery snow and freezing rain took drivers unawares. Police and rescue services, seriously stretched by the simultaneous occurrences, blamed excessive speeds for the carnage.
Photo from road webcam of Finnish Road Association
"Being in the line behind an accident gave little protection; on each of the Lahti, Porvoo, and Hämeenlinna motorways there were two separate crashes of similar scale around a kilometre apart from one another, as drivers ploughed into stationary traffic. Two of the three fatalities took place under these circumstances. One woman was run over after stepping out of her car when she had been rammed from behind." Helsingin Sanomat
Finland is always well equipped but it was likely that the drivers were over-confident and did not link all the factors together.
In all my 21 years in Finland I have not driven in such adverse conditions nor seen such carnage as that day.
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